My favorite was the coffee toffee ice cream with its chocolate bar counterpart, both of which had a nice beany kick. Chubby’s fave was the Rocky Road ice cream and chocolate bar, which is not to say we both didn’t enjoy the pleasant, peanut praline.

You can pick up these new ice cream inspired bars:

...at Bi-Rite Market and Bi-Rite Creamery and they have more flavors in the works.

After our chocolaty fortification, we hopped over to Anita’s cookbook release party:

For me, the Nutcracker does not evoke images of sugar plum fairies, it is the theatrical equivalent of slugging down 5 pousse-cafes. It’s nothing against Tchaikovsky, I just can’t identify with any of the characters in this sugary holiday spectacle. There is Clara, who you know is going to be some sort of crazy bridezilla in NC2, that mouse murdering prince and the disturbing lady who stores live kids in her dress (ew).

The good news is that if you find yourself subjected to a nutcracking next month at the War Memorial Opera House, you can fortify yourself before the matinee with lunch at Jardiniere Restaurant. They will be open on Fridays throughout December from 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m... but skip the pousse cafes.

We should have stayed on the main road, but we took an alternate route and tried the tortas ($6.00 each) at the taco truck at the Marin dump.

Both of our sandwiches came on humongous soft rolls with mayo, tomato and lettuce. The cubano:

... with pork, cheese and jalapenos and the ham and egg-wich:

... were both okay, but we were reminded why it’s not called a “torta trolley” or a “tostada tram” it’s called a “taco truck” for a good reason. They make good tacos.

The woman who takes the orders is always incredibly gracious and noticed our tempered enthusiasm on our non-taco visits. She suggested we try the sopes next time. If that doesn’t work out, I’m sticking with the tacos.

It was like something you would crave at home but not expect to find in a restaurant. Albacore salad with melty cheese and chopped romaine were rolled up in a tangy pancake that made me think of all those tuna sandwiches of the past that I wanted to taste like this.

Chubby went with the chicken with spinach and goat cheese ($9.75):

... which was good, but couldn’t compare to the alba-cored seafood cigar.

You don’t need a lot of dosai dough to swing your partner over for a square (cylindrical) meal, and starting November 7th, there will be a happy hour on Friday nights from 5-7 p.m. with special appetizers, wine, beer and live jazz.

Table Cafe
1167 Magnolia Ave.
Larkspur, CA
415.461.6787

Look who was at Trader Joe’s today - Joe the Turkey:

We caught this inside trader manipulating the stock in the market. Beware of this wolf in sheep’s clothing... in a turkey outfit.

We may credit our swap to our future default shopping destination to the persistence of TJ’s management. Lengthy disagreements with the city slowed down what was supposed to be a new Marin branch opening this month. It looks like the Greenbrae location will open in March 2009.

Our pastvisits to Limon Rotisserie have peru-ven fruitful and were highlighted by their mer-it worthy ceviche and rotisserie chicken. We went with the shore thing of a ceviche mixto ($9.25) and copped a whirly bird ($15.95 for a whole chicken) which landed on the spot.

Fried yucca were the same crispy, starch stakes that we enjoyed before, but they changed the preparation of tacu-tacu (which used to be a deep fried bean and rice ball). They walkued the walku away from the friolator for today’s version.

We pumped down an aorder of the beef hearts ($7.25) which never miss a beat and a pyramid of crispy fried squid, shrimp and fish ($9.25):

... washing it all down with their refreshing house made strawberry limonade.

... I asked how they used the big jar of pickled pork skins and was told that they were served on a tostada ($4.00):

Today I managed to get this skin by my teeth and enjoyed its firm, squid-like density against the crunchy fried tortilla base, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, shredded lettuce, jalapenos, crisp radish slices and salsa.

This cutaneous pigmentation which makes up this hidey helping was too plentiful for a skinny dish. I started out eating bites that contained all of the ingredients, but ended up with a plate fleshed out with flesh, which is good for pork lovin’ zombies, but it wasn’t my thing. From what I’ve seen, the people who run the truck are extremely accommodating and if I had asked for a different ratio, I bet they would have subbed out some veggies for me.

Chubby went with a super burrito ($6.00):

... which was a perfectly good al pastor to enjoy al fresco in the makeshift dump dining area:

So far, we have found the best bet is their tasty tacos that we have had on previous dump runs, although we plan to try their tortas on our next visit.

There are mountains of Chinese chow fun-sized snackage options in San Francisco, but weekday tray traffic dims at around 1 p.m. at sum of the less packed parlors.

A late lunch can translate into the same mai getting siu’ed around the room in an eternal circle unless you order from the menu. I love the immediate gratification of the point and stamp transaction, but since we rolled in late today, we went with plan B.

Whenever I regard a little dumpling, I think about the person who does the culinary equivalent of typing 90 words per minute placing perfect pleats on edible envelopes stuffed with shrimp, pork and soup.

There is something comforting about receiving the expected brusk service without the Gap-greeter welcome before a morsel based meal.